You get what you pay for
Pros:
Smooth against the skin while shaving, inexpensive.
Cons:
Missed spots, had to go over spots repeatedly, not a close enough shave.
The Bottom Line:
Best to avoid this model. I was shaving for about 20 minutes and the results were far below anything I ever used.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I bought this electric razor at a local retail store (for about $30) because it has good reviews around the net and in a consumer magazine. The price performance ratio seemed too good to be true, and unfortunately is was.
Whats in the package?
Braun FreeControl 1775 Shaver
AC Adapter
Maintenance Brush
A small bottle of Appliance Oil
Manual and additional papers
Setup
The manual suggests for the first charge the razor be plugged in for 4 hours. A light is on for the charging and it will blink when completed. Or at least it should. I plugged mine in and saw the green light but when I checked it later no light was on.
At any rate, it powered on and seemed to have had a charge.
Shaving
The manual also suggests that if you have longer whisker hairs from not shaving for a couple of days you should use the trimmer on the back. I shave every 3-5 days so I do get some long whiskers. After 10 seconds or so I realized that this thing was just not going to cut it (pun intended). Not a big deal as I have never really found any trimmer to be worthwhile. I used my default corded buzzer meant for hair cuts and got it down to an acceptable length.
Now this was my first foil shaver and to be honest I was a little scared to just press it up against my face. I thought I might get a "bite" from it as it was brand new and assumedly sharp. After taking the plunge I was quite surprised by how smooth it felt, even compared to my previous rotary electric (more on this later). It seemed a tad on the loud side compared with the corded buzzer/shaver I used for pre-shaving and much louder then the whir of the rotary electric.
I thought it was going OK until I got to my neck line. No matter how I tried, patches of hair seemed to elude the shaver. Up, down, side to side, pressing hard, trying to stretch my skin and hold it at the recommended 90 degree angle. No dice. It was like certain patches of hair got wind from the onslaught of the other fallen hairs and dug themselves into a trench. Remembering the charge light didn't come on, I thought the battery might not have gotten a full charge. I plugged in the ac adapter but it was a futile attempt.
Disappointment washing over me, I demonstrated my dilemma to others whom confirmed that I was not hallucinating and that indeed the razor couldn't get certain patches no matter how I tried. Curses!
I pulled out my dirty old Norelco, packed full of shaved stubble, with blades that would have trouble cutting warm butter, and it got the spots no problem.
Conclusion
I thought this shaver might be a diamond in the rough but I was disappointed pretty quickly. Even now as I feel my face there are rough spots and I went over my entire face quite thoroughly. Against the grain, with the grain, side to side, I felt I encompassed 360 degrees of shaving and still got a poor shave out of it. I think I will try another rotary model after this poor experience. You get what you pay for.
